Unemployment Rises In Slovakia Following Breakup With Czechs

PRAGUE, Czech Republic — The unemployment rate in neighboring Slovakia inched higher in September, to 13.7 percent from 13.4 percent in August and 13.3 percent in July, the Czech news agency CTK reported.

A total of 349,998 people were registered as unemployed in Slovakia in September, up from 344,767 in August, CTK said, quoting data from the Slovak Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and the Family. In July, 339,372 people were unemployed.

Among those unemployed in September were 3,500 college graduates, CTK said. Of the total number of unemployed, 123,712 were getting government unemployment benefits, an increase of 1,896 from August.

The hardest-hit areas were in eastern Slovakia, in the district of Rimovska Sobota, where the unemployment rate hit 24 percent. The lowest rate was in the capital, Bratislava, where 4.8 percent of the work force was unemployed, up from 4.6 percent in August, CTK said.

Since the Jan. 1 breakup of Czechoslovakia, Slovakia's unemployment rate has been far higher than the Czech Republic's. In September, the unemployment rate in the Czech Republic was 3.2 percent, Czech Labor Ministry officials said.